LONDON (AP) — Britain's culture secretary has delayed any decision in the proposed merger of Sky and Twenty-First Century Fox.

Karen Bradley said Friday she would give regulators more time to offer submissions on the matter because the upcoming June 8 British election. The reports had been due in May but will now be due June 20.

Bradley says "once these reports are received, my decision-making role in this process would resume."

The merger would help Rupert Murdoch consolidate his power base in British media. His U.S. media group Twenty-First Century Fox already owns just over 39 percent of Sky Plc.

Earlier attempts to buy Sky were thwarted by the 2011 phone hacking scandal that rocked Murdoch's British newspapers and led to the closing down of the 168-year-old News of the World tabloid.